mycon GmbH and Kipp Umwelttechnik GmbH eliminate air conditioning/ventilation problems at Vienna Airport
Cleaning heat exchangers with the JetMaster process Cleaning heat exchangers with the JetMaster process solved problems with air conditioning / ventilation at Vienna Airport.
Vienna International Airport has existed since its beginnings in 1938. At that time it was used as a military airport. In 1954, Vienna Airport became the first privately managed airport in Austria. In 1992 the name of the operating company was changed from Flughafen Wien Betriebsgesellschaft m.b.H. to Flughafen Wien AG. Vienna Airport is therefore one of the few airports in Europe whose operator is listed on the stock exchange. It has two runways and is the most important commercial airport in Austria with around 226,000 take-offs and 23.4 million passenger movements (as of 2016). With this large number of people, well-functioning air conditioning is very important for the airport.
Successful cleaning of heavily soiled finned heat exchangers
At Vienna International Airport, a large number of finned heat exchangers are therefore installed for cooling/air conditioning, as can be seen in Figure 1.
The external heat exchangers at Vienna Airport were exposed to high levels of dust, especially cement, lime and gypsum dust, due to the partly industrial environment. This had already severely impaired the cooling performance. This type of soiling quickly increases energy costs by 10-30% or more. The corrosion caused by soiling can also lead to a significant reduction in the operating life of heat exchangers. Several attempts to clean the heavily soiled finned heat exchangers – 10 units with a total surface area of over 400 square meters – had been largely unsuccessful for years. A cleaning test with chemicals had also caused the dust to “bake” into each other and the slats were already partially corroded as a result.
In cooperation with its sister company mycon, Kipp Umwelttechnik successfully implemented the entire “JetMaster” system combination, consisting of three devices, at the customer’s premises. Significant amounts of residue were removed from the exchangers. The cleaning effect was so great that the passage values of the heat exchangers are now almost as good as new after cleaning.
Mr. Rödler, Facility Management, Head of Building Services: “The exposed location of our airport in an area with a large number of major industrial companies has led to a considerable load on our heat exchangers. By using the JetMaster system with several process steps, Kipp Umwelttechnik was able to achieve the desired effect of complete cleaning success for the first time. All previous cleaning attempts by other companies had been more or less unsuccessful.”
The JetMaster process and its advantages
The JetMaster process was developed in cooperation with a university with funding from the Federal Ministry of Economics and offers considerable advantages in terms of cleaning success, cleaning costs and environmental friendliness. JetMaster works exclusively with compressed air and small quantities of normal water (drinking water quality). Compared to cleaning with a high-pressure cleaner, the advantages are obvious: lower water consumption, gentler cleaning without bending the sensitive slats, greater cleaning depth. A high cleaning efficiency and fast cleaning speed is achieved through a cavitation effect. The absence of chemical additives also means that there is no additional burden on cleaning staff or the environment.
Further information on cleaning heat exchangers with the JetMaster can be found at: https://www.kipp-umwelttechnik.de/industriereinigung/reinigung-waermetauscher
